Since there is no baseball news (unless the Yankees signing of Darrel Rasner excites you) all is quiet in the land of baseball. Mind you if this is off topic but one of my favorite passions aside from baseball is traveling. Unfortunately I will not be going down to Florida this winter to any of the Yankees spring training games. I’ve been to Tampa, Sarasota, and Orlando to catch games, just about every year since 2001. April is officially been my vacation month lol. However this year I may go down to my favorite city of all, NEW ORLEANS. I love the Jazz, the food, the drinks, the girls, and of course, the southern culture. Being a New Yorker all my life, I’ve learned to appreciate serenity. I grew up downtown Brooklyn amidst the traffic and smog. Not that I regret that, I wouldn’t change it for the world. But every now and then I wonder. I wonder what would it be like to live in the south. Instead of the MTA, there would be the St. Charles Streetcar line. Instead of Broadway, there would be a walk on Bourbon. And ofcourse, instead of hearing police cars at night, hear the beautiful jazz. Here’s a touching poem, relating to Katrina.

                        I remember where my city was
                        It is tucked up in my mind
                        As long as I remember it,
                        It won’t be left behind          

                        Dispersed we are, we sit and wait
                        We live beyond our means
                        The plaintive song we sing, of course,
                        Is “To Miss New Orleans.”

It’s so sad what locals had to deal with. It just shows you how much love they have for their city, and I know it soon it’ll be back on it’s feet. I love it. After college I am either moving to Miami or New Orleans, so others may leave, I’ll come. I was scheduled to go to New Orleans but after Katrina hit, my trip was cancelled. I really do think now is the right time to visit the crescent city. The New Orleans Zephyrs, a minor league team (AAA) of the Washington Nationals play there, so it should be fun to catch a couple minor league games. Keep y’all posted, watch out for pics! lol and NO I am not going for Mardi Gras.

Good guys can sometimes do the wrong thing.

Jason Giambi is my inspiration. The 2005 Viagra Comeback Player of the Year winner is winning hearts faster then Sonic the Hedgehog. In this day and age when so many people (especially those in the public eye) do the wrong things, they usually continue to do the wrong things and thus get labeled as bad people. But if you learn your lesson and redeem yourself, you should be given a clean slate. Jason Giambi took the public scrutiny and everything that went with it after doing the wrong thing. On the radio call-in shows, on the Daily News back pages, and in the hearts and minds of so many fans, he was labeled “done.” Sometimes, the criticism was inhumane, but he still never lashed back or went into hiding.

  Jason Giambi may have experimented with “the juice” for a few years in Oakland, but I do not look at Jason Giambi as the poster boy for the BALCO scandal. He is nowhere in the ballpark of MLB’s worst steroid offenders. First of all, when Giambi had his steroid experimentation, it was still perfectly legal in baseball (I don’t want to hear about how it’s illegal by the law because although that is not something that should be easily excused, what we are discussing is matters which relate to baseball.)

Now, guys like Raphael Palmeiro—The Rat which I’d like to call, they are the worst of the worst. Here is a guy who adamantly denied EVER using steroids and then was caught as a user after the league rules went into effect! Not only did his mouth lie in front of congress, but also did his finger. He is a liar and a cheat. I just can’t look at Jason that way not because I am a biased Yankee fan. I genuinely think Jason is a good guy whose teammates love him. I equate him getting mixed up with BALCO as a really dumb mistake—something that he regrets and something that he’s apologized for and a mistake that he has made right. He was forthright and honest to the grand jury and not evasive and difficult like Barry Bonds. He may not have gotten into detail with his apologetic press conference before the 2005 season, but at least he did apologize for all the distractions he caused and for his awful year in 2004.

In 2005, he showed that the second chance so many people did not want to give him was one that he really deserved. Jason proved what a lot of determination, heart and natural muscles can do. In winning the 2005 Viagra American League Comeback Player of the Year award, Giambi hit .271 with 32 homeruns and 87 RBI (3rd on the Yankees in homeruns, 4th in RBI). He was top ten in 5 American League categories. He lead the AL in walks with 108, he lead the AL in On-Base-Percentage (.440, second overall in MLB), he was eighth in the AL in Slugging Percentage (.535), tenth in the AL in homeruns (tied with Vlad Guerrero), and fourth in the AL in Hit-By-Pitches. Not to mention, in the five game American League Division Series, Giambi led the Yankees with an average of .421 (8 for 19), with 3 doubles and 2 RBI. What more can you ask for?

Jason went from batting .208 with 12 homeruns and 40 RBIs to finish in the top 20 in AL MVP voting. Take a few moments to digest that last one and you will see just what a truly remarkable accomplishment that is. I see him being more relaxed than ever in 2006, and ready to once again continue to build on his sensational 2005, and lead the Yankees to a championship. In the   meantime, Mr. Palmeiro can watch from his living room sofa. Maybe one day if Palmeiro’s kids make a mistake in life they could look at Giambi’s story for inspiration. Special thanks to members of the YES Network message boards for assisting me in this story. Owe it all to you guys, it’ll be one heck of a year.

I wouldn’t be caught dead over here writing for the public, but I figured why not. Before I begin, I would like to applaud Cyn for an outstanding blog, and for the great debates back and forth– even if I win most of them Anyway this is a Yankees blog, you can expect a lot of analysis from the monster lineup that is the Yankees. I’ll be posting as much as I can, try my best to post everyday as the season kicks off. Every team will be analyzed. That includes the Boston Red Sox, The Oakland A’s, heck I’ll even analyze the Kansas City Royals I welcome any and all comments, even if they are Anti-Yankee. Red Sox Nation is always welcome here. Feel free to say ‘Hi’ to Johnny Damon while your here though Please realize I look at baseball as a business and as a sport. This is why this Blog’s URL is "The Boss"– to appreciate the great boss of the New York Yankees, George Steinbrenner. I’ll get more into why I feel this way, and provide facts as a basis for this notion. Anyway, on to at the moment, Feb. 8th, 2006, I’ll briefly analyze the 2006 Yankees lineup. Be sure check back often as I will analyze other teams in my next posts. But here it is folks, the powerful Yankees lineup.

• Johnny Damon CF

• Derek Jeter SS

• Alex Rodriguez 3B

• Jason Giambi 1B

• Gary Sheffield RF

• Hideki Matsui LF

• Jorge Posada C

• Bernie Williams DH

• Robinson Cano 2B

The top of the lineup has the most speed in the majors. Damon, Jeter, and Rodriguez all scored well over 100 runs last year, and all are exceptional base runners. The 3-4-5-6 punch of the reigning American League MVP: Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, and Hideki "The Ferocious Lion" Matsui is as good as they come in baseball. People have said it over and over again the Yankees do not need Johnny Damon. I feel quite the contrary. While Jeter is an excellent leadoff man, his game is more suited for the 2 hole. He’s had awesome years in the past batting second and winning championships after championships. Why is this lineup so powerful? Well aside from the fact that the top 6 players are projected to bat over .300, and that’s not including Cano who batted .297 last year, this lineup is built very fanatically by Brian Cashman to score runs. This means no mercy on the pitcher. Assume the following situation: Johnny Damon leads off, gets on base via walk. The 1st baseman holds on Damon because he’s always a threat to steal. This leaves a larger gap between 1st and 2nd for Jeter to poke an inside pitch to right field. Jeter’s patented inside out swing will be used more appropriately with Damon’s presence. Jeter’s singles to right and Damon’s speed allows him to cruise to third. Next up? Only the batter who lead the majors in slugging percentage in 2005, Alex Rodriguez. A monster .610 slugging percentage makes for a casual fly ball to center field. Damon tags, 1-0 Yankees. Now come the big bats. Jason Giambi, an OBP machine which exceptional power bashes pitch after pitch. Juice or no juice, the American League needs to note Jason is back… and he’s better then ever. Sheffield provides an extra punch with a near .400 average with runners in scoring position. Matsui rounds off the 4 hundred RBI men. The ferocious lion is a doubles machine and does his best clearing the bases. The bottom of the lineup is head strong. Williams, Posada, and Cano pack one of the strongest 7-8-9 punches in all of baseball. But make no mistake about it, the awesome speed of Damon and Jeter, with Rodriguez trailing combined with the powerful bats of Rodriguez, Giambi, Sheffield, and Matsui bash and torment the pitcher, until he finally claims publicly to the press: "The Yankees are my daddy."